Conventionally, many developments have been made for image forming apparatus such as an electronic copying machine. That is, many developments have been made for improving the quality of copy images, for increasing the functions of the apparatus or for making handling of the apparatus easy. For example, there is known an image forming apparatus which is able to automatically copy a plurality of single sheets of documents one after another.
However, those developments were made mainly with respect to single sheet documents. On the other hand, there is not known such an image forming apparatus convenient for copying a continuous sheet document as is printed out by computers or the like.
Thus, using a conventional image forming apparatus, operators had to carry out troublesome operations for copying every section of the continuous stationary document. That is, operators had to raise and lower a platen cover for stably holding every section of a continuous sheet document on a copying position of the apparatus.